125 years ago
Feb. 19, 1892
The party of eastern lumbermen, whose visit to the coast has been announced for some time, passed through Montesano yesterday for the Harbor, and returned to this place during the night, leaving for Portland this morning. Yesterday afternoon was passed in making a tour of the Harbor. Short stops were made at Cosmopolis, Aberdeen and Ocosta. In the evening the party went to Hoquiam where an elegant banquet was spread at the Hotel Hoquiam.
The lumbermen were accompanied down the Harbor by Messrs. Goodell, Bush, Mullen, Cooper, Fleet, Griswold and Carter, of Montesano.
• • •
Mr. J. S. Karshner, one of the proprietors of a shingle mill now in operation in Tumwater, was in Montesano a few days ago, looking for a location for his mill. A site was selected and if it can be procured, it is quite likely the plant will be removed to this place. The mill turns out from forty to fifty thousand shingles per day, and gives employment to eighteen men. The owners now have an order for 12,000,000 shingles, provided they can obtain their location at once, so as to begin work soon. Parties here are interesting themselves in the project, and hope to secure the grounds needed for a site.
100 years ago
Feb. 16, 1917
The program announced by County Agriculturist C. F. Monroe for the farmers’ institutes at Oakville, Elma and Montesano all next week is an excellent one and will be found to be interesting as well as instructive. The lectures arranged cover the fields of poultry raising, dairying and home economics. Experts have been secured to talk on each of the lines and it will be worth while for every one who can to attend one of the meetings.
• • •
The local high school basketball teams defeated the Elma girls and boys teams in the Montesano gym last Friday evening in two of the most hotly contested games ever seen here. The girls game was played first and resulted in a score of 15 to 5 in favor of Montesano. The boys game followed and the score resulting was 31 to 20 in favor of Montesano. This contest was a rough and ready exposition of the game and resulted in slugging on the part of two Elma players, whose tempers have failed to respond to the discipline of the game. Montesano Outplayed Elma at every stage of the contest and the game was never in doubt from the first few minutes of play, when the Monte boys took their lead and steadily increased it throughout the play. Montesano meets Shelton tonight, both girls and boys teams competing.
75 years ago
Feb. 19, 1942
Protest has been sent to Governor Arthur B. Langley by the Grays Harbor county defense commission, due to the action by the state allotting gas masks to 14 Washington cities, but making no provision for smaller centers and rural regions in the coastal area.
The protest pointed out that thousands of masks had been allotted to such cities as Yakima, Wenatchee, Walla Walla and Spokane, far from the immediate danger zone along the coast, while none had been allotted here, except for the county’s two largest cities.
In this county, often described as one of the most likely points of hostile attack, masks were allotted to Aberdeen and Hoquiam only, 18,846 to the first and 10,835 to the second. In addition, 560 steel helmets and nine pumper units were allotted to these two cities.
No immediate distribution is contemplated, however, since most of the equipment has not been manufactured as yet. The allocations are intended as a guide in manufacture, it was said.
50 years ago
Feb. 16, 1967
A posthumous award — for “courageous actions at the time of his fatal wound” — has been recommended for Montesano’s only victim of the conflict in Viet Nam.
The young widow of Pfc. Johnny A. Chambers has received word from his commanding officer, Capt. Peter R. Danylchuk, that the Bronze Star Medal with “V” for Valor is being urged. “He is truly deserving of it,” the captain wrote.
Pfc. Chambers, assigned to Company C, 2d Battalion (Mech), 22nd Infantry, was fatally wounded by an enemy grenade January 8 of this year. He was engaged in “Operation Cedar Falls,” near the Iron Triangle, 27 miles north of Saigon.
“At the time of his fatal wound,” Capt. Danylchuk informed Mrs. Juanita Chambers, 708 1/2 Fourth Avenue, Aberdeen, “Johnny was driving an Armored Personnel Carrier and moving towards a well fortified enemy bunker. Although seriously injured, Johnny continued to maneuver his personnel carrier to a more advantageous position. His efforts in this regard saved the lives of the other members of his squad.”
The captain wrote: “As his commanding officer, I can, in all honesty, say that Johnny was well liked by all of his associates. He was an excellent soldier who performed all tasks assigned him in an outstanding manner. His death came as a tragic shock to all who knew him. I sincerely hope that you can find some measure of consolation in the fact that your bereavement is shared by the members of this organization who were closely associated with him.”
The son of Mr. and Mrs. William Chambers, 429 Calder North, Montesano, was buried January 17 in Wynooche Cemetery. Four days later, his 1959 classmates from Montesano High School planted an evergreen tree in his memory at a Bryan Parkway site.
25 years ago
Feb. 13, 1992
Some potential Montesanans wish the city would get on with much postponed East Beacon annexation plan.
Poplar Road residents Wallace and Sherry Vincent told the city council Tuesday their plans to build a new home are on hold pending a decision. The petition for annexation, which began last spring when two mobile home parks asked to come into the city so they could get city sewage has grown several times and has run into other delays.
“We’re still waiting,” said Vincent. Interest rates are beginning to move back up, he noted.
Mayor “Jack” Frost told the couple “We’re still in the process.”
Councilman Doug George noted the city has run into some tax issues it hadn’t anticipated.
The Vincents said they wanted the matter settled so they’d know whether to go to the city or the county for permits. Sherry Vincent said the city should trash plans for an expanded annexation which created a need for a $15,000 engineering study. “I’ve think we’ve been patient,” she said.
Tom Evans, who also attended the meeting, said it was county residents who petitioned the city for annexation, and he did not feel the city had any obligation to rush into something. The question is not: “Is it good for potential annexees, but is it good for the city.”
Frost said he thought it was in the city’s “best interest” to proceed with annexation, saying he saw it as a way of “protecting our flanks.”
“We’re moving as fast as we can,” Councilman Richard Stone said. It’s taking more time than they thought to gather information and “make sense of it.”
George noted some workshops on the engineering plan are set and a hearing date should be scheduled in two weeks. He said a vote will probably come in about a month.
10 years ago
Feb. 15, 2007
Way up the Wynooche Valley on a 420-acre spread laid out like carpeting for the Olympic Mountains there’s a herd of cows that live in a place and get hand fed by a princess.
That’s where the fantasy ends, because 17-year-old Carly Stone can tell you it’s hard work, not magic, that has earned Skookum Farms a growing national reputation in the Salers cattle industry. (Salers is a breed of cattle that originated in France. It’s pronounced suh-Lairs, with the accent on the second syllable —.)
The Cow Palace is what the stone family jokingly calls the cow barn where every day, both before and after school, their show cattle are groomed and fed and otherwise trained by Carly and her mom.
All of that cow pampering pays off when it comes time to show animals and represent the family’s cattle-raising operation. Carly says the bond she forms with the animals is a large part of their success.
“Oh, I couldn’t do this if I didn’t love it,” she said. “Show cows are groomed every single day. They get used to it and love the attention.”
Carly Stone’s champion showmanship earned her the title of princess from the 2006-2007 American Salers Association during a national competition at Kansas. She wears a sash and a crown.
In her role as princess — when she’s not tending cattle, showing animals for her family, attending school or practicing with the Wishkah Valley basketball team — Stone travels to national Salers shows to represent the breed.
